Wikipedia:Featured article criteria

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Featured content:

Featured article candidates (FAC)

Featured article review (FAR)

Today's featured article (TFA):

Featured article tools:

A featured article should have the following attributes:

It should exemplify our very best work.
It should be well written, comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral, and stable. Read Great writing and The perfect article to see how high the standards are set. In this respect:
- (a) "well written" means that the prose is compelling, even brilliant;
- (b) "comprehensive" means that an article covers the topic in its entirety, and does not neglect any major facts or details;
- (c) "factually accurate" includes the supporting of facts with specific evidence and external citations (see Wikipedia:Verifiability); these include a "References" section where the references are set out, complemented where appropriate by inline citations (see Wikipedia:Citing sources);
- (d) "neutral" means that an article is uncontroversial in its neutrality and factual accuracy (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view); and
- (e) "stable" means that an article does not change significantly from day to day and is not the subject of ongoing edit wars.
It should comply with the standards set out in the style manual and relevant WikiProjects. These include having:
- (a) a concise lead section that summarizes the entire topic and prepares the reader for the higher level of detail in the subsequent sections;
- (b) a proper system of hierarchical headings; and
- (c) a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents (see Wikipedia:Section).
- (d) no single-paragraph sections of single-sentence paragraphs
It should have images where appropriate, with succinct captions and acceptable copyright status; however, including images is not a prerequisite for a featured article.
It should be of appropriate length, staying tightly focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail; it should use summary style to cover sub-topics that are treated in greater detail in any "daughter" articles.

See also